It has recently been found possible to knit one-piece upholstery covers for covering three-dimensional objects. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,308,141 and 5,326,150 disclose a method for knitting one-piece covers for the base and/or back cushions of motor vehicle seats.
In the above-referenced U.S. patents, there is disclosed a method of forming integral tubular flaps which are knitted into the cover to serve as anchorage devices. The tubular flaps described in the above document generally extend in a course-wise direction in the knitted fabric.
U.S. Ser. No. 08/619,052, filed Mar. 20, 1996 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,169 and assigned to the assignee of this application, describes how a wale-wise extending tube can be knitted in weft knitted double jersey fabric. A weft knitted double jersey fabric may be machine knitted on a weft knitting machine having independently operable needles arranged in two needle beds, for example, a flat "V" bed machine. A wale-wise extending tubular portion can be formed between the two layers of the double jersey fabric by slipping stitches on selected needles so that there are no interlocking stitches between the two double jersey layers on particular needles lines, so forming a wale-wise extending tube.
However, there is to date no convenient means of producing a wale-wise extending flap in a central location in a knitted material. This is especially so for a three-dimensional knitted cover where the cover is dimensioned so as to be a substantially exact fit on the object to be covered.